The Immortal
by The Final Conduit
Summary: I have saved millions of people. I've defeated foes that many would never have the slightest shred of hope in the world of even hurting. Yet the vision the emeralds gave me let me see another foe. One that even in my super form I could die without much effort. And so this begs the question: What can kill it before it kills me? OCs. New Chaos Powers. Humanoid Characters.


Their breath was heavy, each person on their knees, the air forming a hazy fog.

The light blue light illuminated the two in the clearing, which had several craters and signs of damage or debris filling it.

Their bodies both ached, their bones screaming their immense displeasure.

One tried to stand up, who had jet black hair and crimson eyes, with streaks a shade as bright as his eyes were. He wore a hooded black jacket and jeans. In fact, his entire person was covered in black, with the exception of his gold inhibitors rings, his rocket shoes, and his white t-shirt. He clenched his hands into fists, the fingerless gloves not stopping him from almost drawing blood.

"Get up..." His deep yet hoarse voice said roughly, his breathing not ceasing.

The boy he spoke to, his white hair in several large strands and eyes more golden than the sun, looked up at him. He on the contrary wore mostly white.

That is to say he wore a short sleeved hooded jacket, and white t-shirt. The things that weren't white was his black undershirt, blue jeans, golden cuffs, and boots that had his jeans tucked neatly into them.

The most noticeable thing about them was the fact that they had little ears poking out of their heads, resembling those of a hedgehog's.

He nodded after a moment, getting up slowly, only to almost stumble back onto the ground.

He spread his legs far apart, pushing his feet deeply into the white snowy ground, then stood up, his arms moving so limply that he was sure that he wouldn't be able to move it again for a while.

They met each other's gazes for a moment, then both clenched their teeth tightly, sprinting at each other with all the speed their bodies would allow.

But they were interrupted.

"Guys, stop!" A girl of about the white haired boy's age appeared between them, pushing her hands into the respective limbs they used to attack to stop them from colliding.

They barely stopped short, Shadow with his fist pulled back and Silver getting his leg up at his face.

The girl had grabbed Shadow's wrist and pushed it away, while also holding up Silver's leg.

The fact that she had successfully stopped them could either mean one of two things...

They stood like that for a moment, before they stepped away from each other, Silver obviously struggling to keep standing while Shadow had less difficulty doing so.

Or so it seemed.

Shadow stood slightly keeled over, breath still coming in harshly, "How far are you with the completion of it?"

The girl smirked, "Almost completely done. But can you guys promise me something? I know you want to get rid of "him" more than anything else, but don't kill yourselves trying to get stronger."

"I... Can promise... not... to do that..." Silver bent over, hands on his knees, breathing as harshly as Shadow, trying to speak, "I can't... say the same for... Shadow though..."

"I'll be fine." Shadow said with a scowl, crossing his arms, keeping the harshness out of his voice.

The girl gave him a look, but walked up to him, then punched his face, making him stumble back slightly in surprise.

"My case in point: You guys rarely rest. If you keep pushing yourselves the way you are, you'll just be a pushover duo rather than of any actual help." She spoke bluntly, hands on her hips.

She had hair as white as the snow falling around them, which reached her mid-back, with eyes bluer than the morning sky.

"Thanks again for your help Ai." Silver smiled weakly.

She only smiled, "No problem. That's what friends are for, right?"

"We aren't friends. We're merely acquaintances."

"Who do you mean?" Silver asked.

"Both of you."

Neither person felt any hurt or offense to this comment.

This was their typical Shadow.

Trying to be emotionless and anti-social as always.

"Yeah, yeah. We get it." Ai helped Silver get up by lending him a hand, which he gladly took, "You guys can rest at the bunker. No one'll bother you there." She trudged along, with Silver's arm over her shoulder.

Shadow stayed behind for a minute, looking around at clearing.

Ai's words replayed through his mind, and he looked down slightly, loosening the scowl he had slightly.

She had been right.

After all, "he" wouldn't be easy to beat.

Shadow really needed to be at his full strength when "he" came.

But even then, he might not have been able to beat "him" alone, even if he took off all four of his inhibitor rings.

So he had planned to ask Silver for his own help, as he was the strongest person he actually knew (though Omega was another safe bet).

But ironically, it actually turned out Silver was looking for his help as well - for the exact same thing!

How they were the only ones that knew was beyond him.

But he had a feeling it had something to do with the Chaos Emeralds.

After all, it was with those that Shadow and Silver knew of the thing to come.

And Shadow also couldn't help wondering what "he" was doing at this moment.

While Shadow and Silver were busting their asses trying to get stronger, what was "he" doing?

He sighed. It was pointless to think about that.

He walked behind Silver and Ai slowly, seeing the two.

Speaking of Ai...

Shadow recalled how they actually met.

He had been scouring through an Egg Carrier that G.U.N. ordered him to take down, when suddenly he could feel a strange part of his sixth sense of detecting Chaos Energy start tugging for his attention.

He followed where it led him, and it led him to a room that had several robots guarding it.

Shadow raised an eyebrow at the scene before him.

Guard Robots?

That just made it obvious that there was something inside there that either was valuable or something Eggman didn't want to get damaged.

Most likely a Chaos Emerald.

That would explain his sixth sense going haywire the way it did.

Shadow concentrated, his fingerless glove protruding a ball of golden light.

He pushed more of his Chaos Energy into it, and it grew in size.

When he was satisfied, he aimed carefully.

He had to hit both...

"Chaos..." He found his perfect target, then pulled his hand back, "Spear!" As though he had a lance, he threw it through the air, and before the robots could do anything, he clenched his hand into a tight fist, "Divide!"

The Spear split in two, and attacked the robots head on, destroying them both.

Alarms blared almost instantaneously after they were completely destroyed.

Shadow didn't show any signs of caring.

But he was already counting down his time before robots got here.

9 minutes, 51 seconds...

He threw another Chaos Spear at the door, and it blew up, leaving a hole large enough for practically anyone to pass through.

Without a second's hesitation, he sprinted past the robot remains and entered the room.

9 minutes, 34 seconds...

Upon entering, Shadow could see very well that there was no Chaos Emerald within there.

Instead, there were pods filling the room.

Shadow narrowed his eyes, trying to see as his eyes adjusted to the poorly lit room.

Most of them had black tinted glass, but one was clear.

He looked closer, then saw that there was a girl trapped inside, who had white hair and wore no clothes.

Shadow wasn't fazed much by her nudity, if at all.

But he WAS taken aback when he noticed there were G.U.N. symbols on the pods.

He never thought Eggman actually had the ability to actually steal from them.

He seemed too stupid for that, despite his immense IQ.

Regardless, he contacted G.U.N. HQ quickly after that.

6 minutes, 27 seconds...

As he told them of it, he soon realized that they were all bolted down.

Then he heard the command to bring all the pods to G.U.N. immediately.

Shadow mentally sighed.

Why couldn't anything be simple...

He closed his eyes, concentrating on the room.

He needed absolute concentration for what he was about to do.

He sent a mental pulse through the floor, imagining the things within it.

It had been something he got from Silver, and he tried it, "locking on" to the things that were in the room.

He paid absolutely no regard to the girl, only concentrating.

"Chaos... Contr-" An explosion suddenly rocked the ship sideways, and Shadow flew forward, hitting the girl's pod face first.

He pushed against it, only to see that he had pressed against the opening switch by accident.

He knew very well that the cause of the explosion had to be E-123, Omega.

He had a habit of going overboard when it came to Eggman.

Shadow now knew that it truly did belong to G.U.N.

Eggman always had a password for all things, whether they were predictable or complicated.

G.U.N. never really did this, for reasons beyond Shadow's understanding, or maybe below what he considered common sense.

The sound of hissing filled his ears, and he looked up, seeing the green water drain out of the pod.

Its glass opened, releasing it into fresh air.

At first, she was motionless.

Then her eyes clenched slightly, before opening up completely, revealing aqua blue eyes.

She looked down at Shadow for a moment, walking slowly, leaning from side to side as though on an unstable ship, then fell to the floor.

Shadow barely caught her, and as he was contemplating what to do with the remaining time he had before Eggman's reinforcements arrived, he heard the girl whisper, "Shadow... Shadow the Hedgehog..."

Shadow looked down at the girl, seeing her face, trying to see if he had ever seen her before.

But he didn't remember her at all.

He narrowed his eyes, deciding in a split second that he needed to question her as much as possible when she awoke.

He concentrated more quickly on the pods again, only avoiding the girl's pod, then used Chaos Control to move them to G.U.N. HQ without going there himself.

Then he teleported to a bunker he had come across that was now well hidden.

He set her down on the inside of it, then teleported to the Carrier again.

He left the room he had stayed in for that time, and Shadow very quickly ran, knowing he had little over a minute left before the other robots came.

He ran into Omega and skidded to a stop, "Omega, what's the status of the mission?"

"6 of the 8 Egg Carrier Engines are either severely damaged or destroyed. Remaining engines are within the back of the ship." It spoke in its loud robotic voice.

"I'll take care of the rest. You get the rest of the soldiers out of here."

"Request Accepted." They both ran off in different directions, Shadow moving deftly through the ship.

He had done this so many times that it was like a drill rather than a mission.

G.U.N. often tried sinking Eggman's ship when it appeared.

If they didn't, Sonic often did.

And typically, he'd beat them to the punch.

Shadow always wondered why he always made the same design of ships.

It just made destroying them all the more easier each time anyone tried.

He ran into another room, with a large engine within it.

Yeah.

It got easier every time.

Shadow concentrated again, his body suddenly being encased with crimson Chaos Energy.

He crossed his arms together, his body becoming red. Then he whipped them apart, letting everything out in one burst.

The result was a massive explosion, of which took a chunk of the Carrier into the ocean.

Shadow teleported at the last second, right into a helicopter that was lying in wait for him.

It's coordinator was none other than Rouge the Bat, one the very few exceptions to the rule that he befriended absolutely no one.

She smiled, "Seems you took a bit longer than usual. Did something happen?"

"Yeah. Got held up by some robot. But nothing much." He lied.

He didn't know whether it was a good idea to tell Rouge about his discovery and actions.

One reason he did this was because he didn't know whether what he heard the girl say meant anything at all or not.

The second reason he did this was because he wanted to avoid the other soldiers that were to enter to eavesdrop on them.

So he kept quiet.

When he returned to the bunker, he found the girl already awake.

She was looking around, obviously wondering where she was.

"It's good that you woke up." Shadow walked to her, face serious, "It's time for you to tell me who you are."

As he found out, Shadow realized the girl actually had amnesia, savor the fact she remembered her name was Ai.

Shadow could remember that in a thing he did in G.U.N. training was learn multiple languages.

"Ai" was Japanese for the word, "Love" if he remembered right.

He was skeptical of her seeming without memories, but soon realized she was literally acting in almost entirely the same way he acted when HE had amnesia.

He sighed, then out of sympathy of knowing that pain, he let her stay with her.

He never failed to notice how she was a Mobian hedgehog.

Over time she began leaving more and more in the outside world (after Shadow gave her clothes of course).

Their acquaintance was much of a secret, so she wasn't everever connected to Shadow when she went anywhere.

It also turned out she had the ability to use Chaos Attacks, so this made travel easier for her.

Shadow couldn't help thinking back to that day, and seeing who she was now, almost a year and a half later.

She really hadn't changed much.

She just knew now that she was better at technology than most, so much so she could've been on par with Tails and Eggman.

Ai didn't know any more about what she knew about him than Shadow did.

It probably would've been categorized as a waste of time if it weren't for her engineering ability.

Shadow scowled, the visions the Chaos Emeralds gave him replaying through his mind...

He shook it all off.

He needed to be focused on getting stronger.

He'd already wasted enough time as it was just thinking of everything.

He knew he couldn't stop until that day came.

He knew the same went for Silver.

They had already made a pact to end "his" life themselves.

And Shadow knew time was running out.

He looked at the watch that he had started wearing during the past several months.

11 months, 3 weeks, 5 days.

That was all the time Shadow had left.

If he and Silver weren't in their prime by then, then not only would they be undeniably dead...

Shadow looked behind him as he reached the peak of a hill, which overlooked miles of forest and a city far off in the distance.

Everything that Shadow was looking at would be destroyed too.

He looked back at his watch again.

It was obviously not midnight.

11 months, 3 weeks, 4 days.

He narrowed his eyes.

He hoped that Ai's invention could boost their strength like she claimed.

With that thought, Shadow walked quickly, even going next to his companions and teleporting them into the bunker.

They had a lot of work to do until then.


End file.
